摘要: |
Michigan residents are choosing to live on Drummond, Neebish, and Sugar Islands located in St. Mary’s River in the eastern Upper Peninsula, and on Beaver Island located in Lake Michigan off the coast of Charlevoix. The residents expect the same access to work, emergency services, and economic opportunities on the mainland as mainland residents receive. There are limited resources available to subsidize service and repair of the four separate docks on the islands. This research should identify the state and federal responsibilities for the following: (1) level of service provided to the island residents, (2) repair/maintenance of docks on the islands, (3) number of back-up ferries needed, as ferries are required to be removed to drydock every five years for Coast Guard inspection/repair, (4) the requirement/need for maintaining a ferry with crew 24/7 for emergency services, and (5) whether ferries on all islands need to be able to accommodate logging trucks. |